INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE GRAPE 501 



in late July and early August in West Virginia and the eggs are 

 laid in a few days. Thus the life cycle requires two full years 

 and larvae of two sizes may be found in the roots at any time, 

 except during the pupal period, when all will be about half to 

 two-thirds grown. 



Control. On account of their subterranean habits it is mani- 

 festly impossible to dig out the borers, as is done with similar 

 species except for a few valuable vines. If the Scuppernong is 

 as immune as has been reported, it might be used as a stock 

 throughout the South, where it will thrive. By recognizing the 

 parent moths, they may be destroyed by approaching them quietly 

 when at rest and striking them quickly with a paddle or board and 

 many might thus be killed during the time they are most abundant. 

 By thorough cultivation in June and July many of the cocoons 

 will be thrown to the surface or buried so deeply that many of 

 the pupae will be destroyed, or the adults will be unable to reach 

 the surface. With liberal fertilization, cultivation will stimu- 

 late the vine to withstand the injury. Brooks has shown that 

 in West Virginia the crested flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus) 

 feeds upon the moths and may be a factor in the control of the 

 pest. 



The Grape Root-worm * 



The Grape Root-worm is the larva of a small, hairy, chestnut- 

 brown beetle which feeds on the upper surfaces of the leaves, 

 eating out series of patches or holes in characteristic chain-like 

 feeding marks which afford an easily recognizable indication of the 

 presence of the pest in the vineyard. The larvae devour the smaller 

 roots and eat out pits and burrows in the larger roots, and where 

 abundant may kill the plants in a year or two, but more commonly 

 they cause an enfeebled growth and a consequent failure to pro- 

 duce profitable crops. Injury has been most severe in the grape belt 



* Fidia viticida Walsh. Family Chrysomelidce . See Quaintan.ce, I.e.; 

 Hartzell, I.e.; M. V. Slingerland, Bulletins 184, 208, 224, and 235, Cornell 

 Univ. Agr. Exp. Sta.; E. P. Felt, Bulletin 19, Office State Ent. of N. Y.; 

 Fred Johnson, Bulletin 68, Part VI, Bureau Entomology, U. S. Dept. Agr.; 

 Johnson and Hammar, Bulletin 89, ibid. 



